The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is a control method for automatically controlling a vehicle within a lane of traffic, maintaining a desired speed while maintaining a safe distance from other vehicles in the same lane of travel. The essential function of ACC is target vehicle following which means that a host vehicle follows a target vehicle while maintaining a predetermined separation (e.g. time or distance). The host vehicle is the vehicle being controlled by ACC, and the target vehicle is the vehicle in front of the host vehicle.
The host vehicle includes a device or devices capable of sensing presence, range (r), and a change in range or range rate (r_dot) between the host vehicle and a target vehicle in the same lane of travel. A number of devices or combinations of devices are capable of generating this information, e.g., radar, LIDAR, sonar, visual, and vehicle location devices. The inputs to control a system within the host vehicle include r, r_dot, and host vehicle speed (v). Target vehicle following occurs when the control module processes inputs, according to programming applying a desired range formula, and outputs acceleration commands to brake/throttle control modules according to the sign (i.e. positive acceleration command is sent to throttle control module and negative acceleration (i.e. deceleration) is sent to brake control module). The brake and throttle control modules translate the deceleration and acceleration commands into brake and throttle effort and applies brake and throttle accordingly.